{"id":1087,"date":"2013-03-22T23:05:17","date_gmt":"2013-03-22T23:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/islenzka.net\/?p=1087"},"modified":"2013-03-22T23:05:17","modified_gmt":"2013-03-22T23:05:17","slug":"telling-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/telling-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Telling Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"clock\"<\/p>\n

Hva\u00f0 er klukkan?<\/strong> If you’re not sure how to answer that question, this beginner post should get you started. Telling time in Icelandic is fairly straightforward, provided you’ve learned some numbers first. At the very least you’ll need to be able to count up to 59 \ud83d\ude42 One thing that is nice about telling time is that you don’t have to worry about any of the declensions of the numbers 1 through 4, since the accusative case is the same as the nominative for the neuter forms. Just remember to use the neuter forms when telling time, as shown in the table. Let’s review:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Icelandic Numbers (1 – 59)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/th>\neitt<\/td>\n11<\/th>\nellefu<\/td>\n30<\/th>\n\u00ferj\u00e1t\u00edu<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/th>\ntv\u00f6<\/td>\n12<\/th>\nt\u00f3lf<\/td>\n40<\/th>\nfj\u00f6rut\u00edu<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/th>\n\u00ferj\u00fa<\/td>\n13<\/th>\n\u00ferett\u00e1n<\/td>\n50<\/th>\nfimmt\u00edu<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/th>\nfj\u00f6gur<\/td>\n14<\/th>\nfj\u00f3rt\u00e1n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/th>\nfimm<\/td>\n15<\/th>\nfimmt\u00e1n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6<\/th>\nsex<\/td>\n16<\/th>\nsext\u00e1n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/th>\nsj\u00f6<\/td>\n17<\/th>\nsautj\u00e1n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8<\/th>\n\u00e1tta<\/td>\n18<\/th>\n\u00e1tj\u00e1n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9<\/th>\nn\u00edu<\/td>\n19<\/th>\nn\u00edtj\u00e1n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10<\/th>\nt\u00edu<\/td>\n20<\/th>\ntuttugu<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

And for good measure let’s throw in zero (0) – n\u00fall n (-s, -)<\/strong><\/p>\n

In response to the question:<\/p>\n

Hva\u00f0 er klukkan?<\/strong> – What time is it?<\/p>\n

let’s take the case where we are at the top of the hour. A few responses could be:<\/p>\n

Klukkan er tv\u00f6.<\/strong> – It is two o’clock. (2:00)
\nKlukkan er ellefu.<\/strong> – It is eleven o’clock. (11:00)
\nKlukkan er fimm.<\/strong> – It is five o’clock. (5:00)<\/p>\n

Here we are seeing the feminine noun klukka<\/strong> with the definite article:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
klukka (f) – clock<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/th>\nsingular<\/th>\nplural<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
nom<\/th>\nklukka<\/td>\nklukkur<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
acc<\/th>\nklukku<\/td>\nklukkur<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
dat<\/th>\nklukku<\/td>\nklukkum<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
gen<\/th>\nklukku<\/td>\nklukkna<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

You can also respond using just the feminine pronoun:<\/p>\n

H\u00fan er fj\u00f6gur.<\/strong> – It is 4 o’clock. (4:00)<\/p>\n

For talking about a certain number of minutes before or after the hour, we use the prepositions yfir<\/strong> or \u00ed<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

H\u00fan er t\u00edu m\u00edn\u00fatur yfir sex.<\/strong> – It is ten past six. (6:10)
\nH\u00fan er tuttugu og sj\u00f6 yfir t\u00f3lf.<\/strong> – It is twenty seven past twelve. (12:27)<\/p>\n

H\u00fan er fimm m\u00edn\u00fatur \u00ed \u00ferj\u00fa.<\/strong> – It is five before three. (2:55)
\nH\u00fan er tuttugu \u00ed n\u00edu.<\/strong> – It is twenty before 9. (8:40)<\/p>\n

M\u00edn\u00fata<\/strong> is declined just like klukka:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
m\u00edn\u00fata (f) – minute<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/th>\nsingular<\/th>\nplural<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
nom<\/th>\nm\u00edn\u00fata<\/td>\nm\u00edn\u00fatur<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
acc<\/th>\nm\u00edn\u00fatu<\/td>\nm\u00edn\u00fatur<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
dat<\/th>\nm\u00edn\u00fatu<\/td>\nm\u00edn\u00fatum<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
gen<\/th>\nm\u00edn\u00fatu<\/td>\nm\u00edn\u00fatna<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

You can also use the words k\u00f3rter<\/strong> and h\u00e1lf<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Klukkan er k\u00f3rter \u00ed sj\u00f6.<\/strong> – It is a quarter to seven. (6:45)
\nH\u00fan er k\u00f3rter yfir \u00e1tta.<\/strong> – It is a quarter past eight. (8:15)<\/p>\n

In English you typically hear half<\/em> used in the sense of 30 minutes past<\/em> the hour. In Icelandic it actually means 30 minutes before<\/em> the hour:<\/p>\n

Klukkan er h\u00e1lf t\u00edu.<\/strong> – It is 9:30. (i.e. half before 10)
\nH\u00fan er h\u00e1lf eitt.<\/strong> – It is 12:30. (half before 1)<\/p>\n

There is also a more formal expression that you may sometimes hear on the radio or other news media:<\/p>\n

Klukkan er t\u00edu m\u00edn\u00fatur gengin \u00ed \u00ferj\u00fa.<\/strong> – It is 2:10.<\/p>\n

In this case what is being expressed is that ten minutes have elapsed since 2 o’clock, going toward 3 o’clock \ud83d\ude42 Similarly you can have:<\/p>\n

Klukkuna vantar t\u00edu m\u00edn\u00fatur \u00ed \u00ferj\u00fa.<\/strong> – It is 2:50.<\/p>\n

Here we see the impersonal expression with vantar<\/strong> being applied to the time, literally the clock needs\/lacks\/is missing 10 minutes to get to 3.<\/p>\n

This should be enough to get you started; picking random times and figuring out how to say them in Icelandic is not only good for learning how to tell time, but also for drilling numbers. If you prefer using a 24-hour clock, you can do that as well \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hva\u00f0 er klukkan? If you’re not sure how to answer that question, this beginner post should get you started. Telling…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1087"}],"version-history":[{"count":43,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1299,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087\/revisions\/1299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}